October 14
Alexandra Kollontai – Arbeit an der Theorie
The biography of Russian revolutionary Alexandra Kollontai encompasses many lives. The clichéd images are just as abundant: the pioneer of “free love” and polyamory; the fearless fighter who betrayed her wealthy parents and joined the communist workers’ movement, went to prison, and had to change countries as often as she changed clothes; the rebel who helped Lenin win the October Revolution in 1917; the assertive woman who became one of the world’s first female ministers and ambassadors; the critic who joined the Russian Workers’ Opposition in 1921 and was one of the few revolutionaries of the early days to survive Stalinism. Beyond these set pieces, what are the inner workings of her biography? What contribution did she make to Marxist theory?
Ingar Solty talking to Regina Scheer, moderated by Ann-Kristin Tlusty.
(DE)
8 pm | Literaturforum im Brecht-Haus, Chausseestr. 125
October 15
Parole Text:Buch | Künstliche Intelligenz und der neue Faschismus
Artificial Intelligence is often being hailed as the saviour of humanity’s greatest problems, as efficient, objective, and tireless. But what if authoritarian fantasies of power and control are hiding behind this new, forward-looking technology?
The philosopher and mathematician Rainer Mühlhoff discusses the explosive intertwining between tech-ideologies and rightwing politics, asking: What is AI’s role in these developments? How do discourses about a “superintelligence“ and machine ethics obscure the political and social consequences of the tech industry in the real world? Why is the public allowing itself to be distracted by speculation about salvation or annihilation through AI from the considerable damage AI is causing in our present? And how can we recognize the increasingly anti-democratic, fascist tendencies that are forming in the interaction between the tech industry and the new right – in Europe and elsewhere?
Talk with Rainer Mühlhoff, Aline Blankertz, Katika Kühnreich und çapulcu redaktionskollektiv, moderated by Carolin Wiedemann
(DE)
8 pm | Volksbühne am Rosa-Luxemburg-Platz, Linienstr. 227
October 16
Julia Schramm: “Zerfall”, Booklaunch
Social and economic inequality is destroying our society. Its poison penetrates our thoughts and feelings, shatters relationships, fuels hatred and incitement – and paves the way for the rise of fascist forces. It means exclusion, disenfranchisement, and exploitation for many, and isolated and detached wealth for few. It means the decay of our humanity.
In “Decay”, Julia Schramm approaches the fault lines of our time in personal, poetic, and political language. She combines philosophy, pop culture, and political science into a powerful essay on the destructive power of social inequality – and formulates a passionate appeal for justice and humanity.
(DE)
7 pm | Buchhandlung Ebert und Weber, Falckensteinstraße 44
November 5
Writing the City with Çağla Arıbal
Berlin is a city of layers, a palimpsest shaped by overlapping histories, shifting identities, and the constant rewriting of its own narrative. Berlin remains a metaphor for fragmented selves, a place where memory, imagination, and physical space intersect. In this creative writing workshop, we will explore Berlin as both a real and imagined landscape, treating the city as a text to be read and a story to be written.
Through close readings of excerpts from novels, short stories, essays, and poetry, we will investigate how writers reconstruct selves through cities and how we can draw inspiration from them to “write Berlin into being.”
We will move from reading to writing, using the city’s textures as prompts for our own creative work. This class is a workshop in the truest sense: a space for creation, feedback, and community. You will leave this course with new writing habits, exposure to a diverse range of writers, a revised work, and a community of fellow writers.
During this course, students will develop a personal writing practice grounded in close observation of place, write across genres, explore how setting functions as more than a backdrop, and gain practical experience giving and receiving feedback in a workshop setting.
This is a hybrid class held both online and in-person in Mitte, Berlin.
(EN)
7 pm | Berlin Writer’s Workshop, address upon enrolment